Looking out over a newly rocky coast, several people at St Clair Beach yesterday commented the erosion was the most dramatic they had seen.
''It's getting progressively worse over the years,'' Marilyn Haslemore, who has lived metres from St Clair Beach for the past 30 years, said.
Mrs Haslemore said she and her husband could hear the waves crashing against the wall some nights, when the tide was particularly high, as it had been this week.
''It was like the earthquake,'' she said.
''It's 2am and you can't sleep. But what can you do?''
Dunedin City Council parks, recreation and aquatics manager Richard Saunders said this week's erosion was not the biggest in recent years, but ''comparable to what we see on an annual basis''.
''The erosion that occurred in 2007 still remains the biggest event to date,'' he said.
The erosion did not seem to be getting worse with time, he said.
Twice-yearly monitoring suggested underlying levels of sand had not changed significantly.
Council roading maintenance engineer Peter Standring said the stairs and ramps at the Esplanade would be demolished ahead of schedule because of the latest storm damage.
''Mother Nature's forced us into the position of having to act now,'' he said.
The storm also destroyed the bottom half of a new boat ramp at the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club. It would be repaired in coming months, he said.
University of Otago coastal processes specialist Dr Mike Hilton agreed this week's erosion was not the worst ever.
But ''it's probably the largest erosive event that we've had in the last five or six years''.
The erosion had been caused by particularly large, widely spaced waves, as a result of low atmospheric pressure and a spring tide, Dr Hilton said.
The storm ''seemed to hit the St Clair area quite hard'', as evidenced by the timber poles washed away.
''That's the first time they've been disrupted in a long time.''
Sand levels could have been lowered about 1m-2m at the worst affected areas, such as St Clair and Tomahawk Beaches, he said.
Strong winds forecast for this weekend could result in more damaging waves and erosion.
MetService marine forecaster Derek Holland said he expected about 4m swells on Sunday, which ''could add to the damage''.
